FMC Corporation - Lithium Division - Executive Summary |
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FMC Corporation's Lithium Division facility in Bessemer City, North Carolina I. Accidental Release Prevention and Emergency Response Policies FMC Corporation's Lithium Division facility in Bessemer City, North Carolina ("FMC") is committed to conducting its business in a manner that protects the safety and health of its employees, contractors, and neighbors. This committment is demonstrated in the resources invested in accident prevention, training, and the highest regard for safety throughout facility design, installation, operation and maintenance. Our policy is to implement effective controls to prevent releases of regulated substances. Trained emergency response personnel work with local response agencies to control emergencies and protect public safety. II. Source Description and regulated substances handled The FMC Bessemer City facility manufacturers and processes organic and inorganic lithium compounds. Methyl chloride, an RMP regulated substance, is used as a reactant to manufacture methyllithium. Methyllithium is produced for the pharmaceutical industry which uses it to manufacture pharmaceutical products. While methyl chloride is a gas at ambient conditions, it is shipped and handled as a compressed liquid. Methyl chloride is considered toxic at concentrations of 400 ppm (0.04% in air) or greater and is very flammable. III. Hazard Assessment Results The worst-case release scenario for methyl chloride is the release of all 16,000 lbs stored on site over a ten (10) minute period, during a time of stable atmospheric conditions and a very slow wind of ~3 mph. These conditions would keep the vapor in a cloud and minimize the gas from dispersing and becoming less concentrated. Under these conditions, methyl chloride concentrations at 400 ppm or greater could occur up to 0.8 miles from the release. If a circle were drawn around the storage tank, reaching 0.8 miles in all directions, approximately 170 homes in our community could be affected. Part of the Bessemer City Middle School lies at the boundary of that circle. The worst-case scenario is highly unlikely to occur given the safety and prevention programs in place. A more credible scenario (which is considered as the alternative case) is if the hose from a trailer loading methyl chloride into the storage tank were to leak. In this case, it is estimated that about 800 lbs of methyl chloride could be lost and methyl chloride concentrations of 400 ppm or greater could occur up to 0.1 miles from the release. This release scenario would just barely leave our property and affect only one of our neighbors and the Amercian Legion Hall, if the wind were blowing in their direction. To prevent releases during transfer, FMC's operating procedures require that the transfer line be inspected prior to connection and after they are connected, they are pressure tested with inert nitrogen gas to ensure they aren't leaking. IV. Accidental Release Prevention Program and Chemical Sp ecific Prevention Steps Extensive process safety analyses have been conducted to identify potential hazards in the methyllithium process and mechanisms to prevent releases have been implemented. Experts have been consulted and used in the design of FMC's methyllithium process to ensure that process safety systems protect our employees and neighbors. Operating procedures have been developed, reviewed and operators are trained on routine operations as well as process startup, shutdown, and safety and emergency systems. Methyl chloride is only stored at FMC when we are making methyllithium for a specific customer order. Only the amount of methyl chloride which will be needed to fill current orders is brought on site. V. Five year Accident History FMC has not had a methyl chloride release in the past five years. VI. Emergency Response Program FMC's emergency response program includes a general plantwide program to be implemented in the event of an emergency as well as specific response scenarios for methyl chloride and methyllithium. In the event of an emergency which could affect the community, FMC has worked with Bessemer City and Gaston County emergency responders to develop a plan to protect public safety and advise our neighbors. VII. Planned changes to Improve Safety FMC continues to review and update procedues, programs, and hazard analyses to identify addtional measures to make our processes safer. |